1. The Land of mEXICO
Mexico is divided into 5 physical regions, based largely on the location of their major mountain ranges:
Sierra Madre Occidental
Sierra Madre Oriental
Sierra Madre del Sur
3 times the size of TX
City of Monterray---sierra madre oriental
Copper Canyon, a series of six canyons in Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains, is four times larger than the Grand Canyon and 300 feet deeper. It comprises 25,000 rugged square miles and occupies nearly a third of the State of Chihuahua, Mexico's largest state. The canyon has long been home to the Tarahumara Indians (the Raramuri or "people of the swiftly running feet"), who moved into the canyons hundreds of years ago to escape successive invasions by the Aztecs, Spanish, and Apaches, and have lived reclusive, subsistence lives for centuries, eschewing modern conveniences and maintaining their culture

2. The Sierra Madre Occidental is Mexico’s largest mountain range
It is along the western coast
The second largest mountain range is on the East Coast (Sierra Madre Oriental)

3. 1. The largest region of Mexico is the Central Plateau
“Mexico’s Heartland”
Mexico’s most important region…
Largest population/biggest cities
Lies between the Sierra Madres

4. Some of the richest soil in Mexico is in the southern part of this plateau
Plenty of rainfall---makes up Mexico’s best farmlands Corn is a staple in Mexico and is a main crop. Other crops include beans, barley, and fruits such as oranges, apples, grapes, tangerines, grapefruit, and raisins.
Agave plant, used to make tequila

5. The most geologically unstable region
Plate tectonics…Mexico is in the crossroads of 4 tectonic plates
North American Plate
Caribbean Plate
Pacific Plate
Cocos Plate
As these plates collide, they pushed up mountains and have also opened the land with earthqquakes
The mountainous regions here also have volcanoes among them
A bad earthquake destroyed part of Mexico City in 1985
Mexico is found in the “Ring of Fire”—one of the earth’s most violent earthquake and volcano zones

6. 2. Northern Pacific Coast
Lightly populated except for Tijuana
Farmland by irrigation
West of the Sierra Madre Occidental
Includes the arm of the Baja CA peninsula
Just across the border from CA---Tijuana is one of Mexico’s largest and fastest growing cities
Some great farmland in part of the region but only because of irrigation of three nearby rivers
Colorado, Sonora, Yaqui
No farmland on the Baja CA peninsula because it is mostly desert/mountains
Mars with Cactus

7. The thin stretch of the Baja California peninsula is very dry and mountainous
Mars with Cactus
110 degrees easy

8. 3. Southern Pacific Coast
A region best known for tourism because of its resort cities and beaches
Along the narrow Southern Pacific Coast—has few opportunities for farming
Acapulco
Puerto Vallarta

9. 4. Gulf Coastal Plain Region with great amounts of oil and natural gas
One of world’s major oil-producing regions
One of the world’s major petroleum producing regions

10. 5. Yucatan Peninsula
A flat region known for a limestone bedrock and resulting in beautiful underground caves
As the rain works its way into the rock, the limestone is dissolved
Numerous caverns are carved by subsurface streams….when the roof of a cavern collapses, it forms a sinkhole which is used by some as a well
The Yucatan peninsula has virtually no surface streams due to its limestone foundation -- a relic of its past life as coral reef on the bottom of the ocean. Ground water sinks through the porous limestone and travels to the sea in underground rivers and caves (formed from millennia of acidified water dissolving conduits in the limestone). To date, almost sixty cave systems with more than 300 miles of passageways have been discovered.